userdoc:tt_avahi_mdns

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mDNS/DNS-SD Service Discovery (Bonjour)

AstLinux now supports the Avahi package, a system which facilitates service discovery on a local network via the mDNS/DNS-SD protocol suite. The ability to “reflect” mDNS multicasts from one segment to another segment can be particularly useful.

Avahi's implementation of mDNS/DNS-SD is compatible with Bonjour.

In case you were wondering, the name “Avahi” is the scientific Latin name for a genus of Woolly lemur. One of the developers found the name, liked it, and it stuck.

Note: AstLinux 1.2.7 or later is required

Select the Network Tab in the web interface.
Network Tab

Locate the mDNS/DNS-SD entry within Network Services:

mDNS/DNS-SD Disabled Config

Change to “enabled” and “Save Settings”, then restart mDNS/DNS-SD…

mDNS/DNS-SD Enabled Config

mDNS/DNS-SD is now running, but by default not active on any interfaces.

A default configuration has been installed, which you can now edit by clicking on “Configure mDNS/DNS-SD”…

mDNS/DNS-SD Enabled Config

For example if you wanted to enable mDNS/DNS-SD on both the eth1 and eth2 interfaces, edit the allow-interfaces line to:

allow-interfaces=eth1,eth2

Reference: avahi-daemon.conf(5)

Tip -> The [reflector] section allows mDNS multicasts to be “reflected” to different subnets.

Tip -> The reflect-filters= setting can be tuned for desired Inter-LAN traffic, for example a printer serving LPD, IPP and JetDirect (TCP Ports: 515,631,9100)

reflect-filters=_printer._tcp.local,_ipp._tcp.local,_pdl-datastream._tcp.local

Then add a Firewall Rule to allow the corresponding Inter-LAN traffic, Network tab → Firewall Configuration sub-tab.
Example: Allow any LAN subnet access to a LAN printer at 192.168.101.8 serving LPD, IPP and JetDirect

Action: Pass LAN->LAN | Protocol: TCP | Source: 0/0 | Destination: 192.168.101.8 | Port: 515,631,9100


After making changes to the avahi-daemon.conf configuration file you can restart mDNS/DNS-SD.

Courtesy David Kerr

Described below is an example

  • userdoc/tt_avahi_mdns.1466300445.txt.gz
  • Last modified: 2016/06/18 20:40
  • by abelbeck